Just because you keep saying it - Part 2

Thursday, December 13, 2012

I’ve been
working on reform of dog control and shelter standards laws now since October
2011.It has proven to be an
enlightening, frustrating and surprisingly long-term endeavor.

For those new to
my blogs, this journey began as an effort to reform the Kent County SPCA.It has grown much larger, although I still
believe that some of the worst violations of both the various CAPA laws and
animal/dog control enforcement are perpetrated by the KCSPCA.

I – and the
others I work with – have been described variously by the KCSPCA leadership as:

- Disgruntled
former board members

-A vocal minority
with personal agendas

-Fringe
extremists of the no-kill movement

-Idiots

KCSPCA
leadership and supporters both dismiss the complaints we have collated, pretty
much saying that of course the pet owners are lying.But we are all supposed to believe the
complaints against Safe Haven without question.

Some have said
that we don’t give enough detail, but when we offer that detail, no one wants
it.Our statements have remained pretty
consistent.Our search for clarification
on legislation has been ongoing – and sometimes our interpretation of that
legislation has had to change.It has
been clear that some of the legislation NEEDS to be amended for clarity.

So here are some
of my thoughts on what has been said by KCSPCA leadership and supporters,
certain agencies and the media – and I tried to keep repetition from my last
blog to a minimum (Just because you keep
saying it, doesn’t make it true….):

*** Honesty – as
in, if you tell the truth, you don’t have to worry about keeping track of your
lies – or having other people do it for you.***

·In the January
2, 2012 News Journal,Secretary
Kee (Dept. of Agriculture) said he had received 20 complaints, covering shelter
standards and conditions and animal control issues.Yet, at the October 2012 Animal WelfareTask
Force meeting, Secretary Kee said he only had 5 complaints since CAPA was
implemented.

·On January 13,
2012, Secretary Kee met with several of us in his office to discuss the
documents we had sent him.He told us he
would arrange another meeting with us in one month.We never heard from him again, even when we
e-mailed him asking about the meeting and then, in June, sending him another
report concerning conditions at the KCSPCA shelter.

·On June 6, 2012,
Mr. Usilton and Board president Alex Moore walked out of a meeting with Kent
County Levy Court Commissioners.On June
11, the KCSPCA Board voted to withdraw its bids to Kent County for the dog
control contract.Subsequently, in news
articles and on the KCSPCA website, Mr. Usilton claimed that Kent County
refused to negotiate.

·In the June 27 Dover
Post, Mr. Usilton said that the KCSPCA handles 15,000 animals a year.At the November 2012 AWTF meeting, he said
that the KCSPCA killed 16,000 animals in 2004.That is about 44 animals per day.So – how many did the KCSPCA actually handle in 2004?And why so many more than now?Or is that just a number Mr. Usilton pulled
out of the air?

·At the November
12th KCSPCA Board meeting, Mr. Usilton said that they would be
reimbursed for their efforts during “Sandy.”The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) would reimburse them for
the Delaware shelters and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) would
pay them for the recovery work in New Jersey.In the November 13thDelaware State News, in a letter
to the editor, he stated that there was no funding for these endeavors and
asked for donations to cover the costs.Well, maybe this wasn’t in the KCSPCA budget, but why not tell the
truth, that they were getting paid for it?This would appear to be soliciting money with a false or misleading
statement.At best, a sin of omission;
at worst, fraud.

·In a JuneDover
Postarticle, Mr. Usilton said that they handle 15,000 animals a year.But if you look at the quarterly statistics,
you will see that they inflate their “intake” numbers with pets that have come
through their clinic for rabies vaccinations or spay/neuter.They remove those number for their “adjusted
intake.”I don’t believe that animals brought
to the clinic can actually be claimed as shelter intake. So, using only their adjusted intake figures
from the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2012, and extrapolating a
similar number for the remainder of the year, I get less than 8,000 animals per
year.Even a 25% increase brings it to
less than 10,000.So where are the 15,000
animals?

(See my previous
blog concerning the number of animals Mr. Usilton claims were euthanized by the
KCSPCA several years ago – an even higher figure than the 15,000 he claims they
handle each year.)

The
intake numbers are not broken down by Dog Control and county, Cruelty cases or
owner relinquished.It is not required
by law, but I would think they would do so to support their arguments for more money.They also have a line that says “died in
shelter or lost.”It is not broken down
by category.In the first 6 months of
the year, there are over 200 animals in this category.One pet owner whose dog was “lost” in their
care for quarantine (2011) has been told it was her fault for not telling them
the dog could climb fences (hello?Quarantine?). 200 animals is a
lot, whether they died (how?) or were “lost.”Enough so that “losing” an animal cannot be attributed to some sort of one-time
glitch.

·Mr. Usilton
stated at the November AWTF meeting that the animal control agency in Philadelphia
only holds animals for 24 hours.I
contacted the Animal Care and Control Team via e-mail.Their hold time is 48 hours, NOT 24.

******

*** “What’s good
for the goose is good for the gander.”As in, you can’t demand that one shelter be held accountable, and not
the others. ***

·The board of
directors of the KCSPCA want Safe Haven investigated and made to comply with
the laws, but refuse to provide accountability for their own organization,
stating that they are a private non-profit organization.(KCSPCA Board meeting of July 2012 and
e-mails to the Attorney General’s office arguing that they are not subject to
FOIA)

·The director of
the KCSPCA takes it on himself to e-mail the directors of the No-Kill shelters
stating they are violating state law, but ignores the complaints against his
own shelter, dismissing the complainants as a vocal minority of the no-kill
movement. (I or those in our group have seen these e-mails, and KCSPCA
leadership has made it clear in their board meetings that they do not consider
any complaints made against them to be true.)

(Please refer to
my last blog for details regarding complaints against Safe Haven that have ALSO
been made about the KCSPCA.)

******

*** News media –
as in, Why will they print anything the KCSPCA supporters or Safe Haven
detractors say, but won’t print any of the detailed and documented complaints
we have brought to them? ***

Complaints against the KCSPCA that are documented,
with details such as names and dates, are ignored by the press; KCSPCA
supporters make claims about what goes on at Safe Haven, and are given play in
the news media.

Particularly
interesting is that we have been told by various reporters that A) they can’t
print a one-sided story and B) they can’t print a story without proof.Yet they print Mr. Usilton’s descriptions of
us without checking, and they ignored documents that included photographs.Hmmmmmm…….I guess actually investigating or
checking your sources isn’t required of Delaware journalists.

When you
actually look into some of those claims (about Safe Haven) that the news media
WILL print (without input from Safe Haven, making it a one-sided story) you run into people using fake names to make statements on FaceBook, people who admit they just “heard it was like that” and people who are
so illiterate that it is a challenge to try to read what they have to say.And the supporters who cross the line at
Safe Haven events, requiring police involvement, say those events never
happened - because Safe Haven did not press charges.Those reaping the benefit of Safe Haven’s
clemency seem to believe that no formal police report, means nothing
happened.According to them, the
notation in a police officer’s day book isn’t a report.Interesting, because I was always told those
reports can be used in court.

What’s even more
amazing is that some of the Cape Gazette’s articles containing these
stories about Safe Haven have been picked up by writers outside of
Delaware.Either they assumed the CG
checked its sources, or they don’t care, either.

******

*** Drinking the
Koolaid – as in, believing everything you are told…..***

The supporters
of the KCSPCA, certain Sussex County officials and a lot of journalists take
everything said by either Kevin Usilton or “Jake” as truth but dismiss
documented statements as “stories.”I don’t
know how they manage to justify the discrepancies and contradictory statements.Do you all remember the followers of Jim
Jones and the Koolaid they drank?

***
Related to this is, “whatever the KCSPCA says is right, and it doesn’t matter
who else yOu spoketo… ***

For
example:We posted on FB that Milford
had a cat-leash law and a cat colony program administered through the
KCSPCA.We contacted Milford for
clarification when a KCSPCA employee told us there was no cat program.We were told that the leash law was not
enforced and was going to be removed from the City Code at an upcoming
meeting.We were also told there WAS a
KCSPCA program and the KCSPCA employee who told us otherwise had been reprimanded.

Well, not only
did that employee contact us again, saying they were too busy to do this
program, an animal control officer contacted us stating we were wrong, that the
leash law WAS enforced and anyone who told us otherwise was wrong – and who
were we going to believe – him or some clerk?This went around and around – with the City Clerk telling us one thing,
and the animal control officer insisting he was the final authority.He also told us that Milford’s Mayor was a
neighbor of his and “his door is always open.”Not sure what that meant, although it seemed to imply he had influence
with the Mayor.Our advice to Milford
residents?Keep your cats indoors.

Oh, you want
proof?I have the e-mails and the
statements posted on FB.

******

*** Social media
- do you all remember that game we
played as kids?The one where you
whisper a story to someone and see how it gets changed around the circle? ***

We understand
that the law allows for freedom of speech, and employers cannot dictate what
their employees say or do on social media on their own time.Although the KCSPCA employees make statements
purporting to represent that organization, which would seem to be a gray area…..But Mr. Usilton is not content with managing
his employees:he messages other people
with “I don’t like that post.Please
remove it.”He threatens people with civil
and criminal action for contacting him. People who are not subject to his
authority at all, on FB pages that are independent of the KCSPCA. (umm, public figure as executive director of a non-profit agency with state authority for
enforcement and receiving state monies?)

Mr. Usilton
often makes remarks WE don’t like – but we don’t presume to tell him he can’t
make them.He made a sarcastic remark
concerning Carol Furr, a member of our group who spoke against him at the
November AWTF meeting.On FB on November
16, he posted that she “must have had a liquid lunch.” That was picked up by his employees on
December 8, 2012 on the “No-Kill Delaware Blocked Elite” FaceBook page.Here are the comments.I have not edited them except to identify the
poster’s relationship to the KCSPCA.

#####

(KCSPCA Animal Control Officer)Ken Vaughn i know she had 320 votes , maybe if she didnt have her head up sweeneys
a$$, she could see things on both sides of the fence. Glad to see that her and
her (groups) life is worth waisting on a cause with 53 followers. Maybe her
followers are met at her AA meeting . . . hahahahaha , Haters are the fuel that
makes you work that much harder!

(KCSPCA Kennel Tech Supervisor)Sharon Ritter Geyer Wait, I thought the
other one was the drunk. ??? Both of them are? Don't tell me!!! I'm trying to
take a vacation from the drama.

They were
careful.They didn’t name anyone except
KCLC Commissioner Sweeney.But most
people knew who they were posting about.So now, in the world of the KCSPCA supporters, Carol Furr and I are drunks who met at an AA
meeting.

Well, IF it were
true, it would just prove that you meet a better class of people at AA than you
do at the KCSPCA.